Get Harvesting – DIY Veggie Basket

This charming basket will make harvesting your veggies a pleasure.

What You Will Need For Your Basket

• 2 x 30 mm wood (200 mm x 180 mm – ends)
• 4 x 12 mm dowel sticks (420 mm in length)
• Piece of fencing wire with a 25 x 25 mm mesh (410 mm x 555 mm)
• Branch or wooden handle (see how to make one below)
• Wood glue
• Block of wood to help with shaping the wire mesh (about 15 mm x 15 mm x 410 mm)
• 2 x 4 mm x 50 mm wood screws

Tools

Tape measure, jigsaw, sandpaper or sander, drill and 12 mm drill bit, carpenter’s square, pencil, metal snips, pliers, circular plastic lid

Steps

1. Round off the corners of the two end pieces with a jigsaw. A good stencil to use for the rounded corners is a circular plastic lid – just make sure the corners are symmetrical by starting the curve at the same spot on each corner.

2. Using a sander or sandpaper, chamfer all edges of the basket ends for a smooth look and feel.

3. On the basket ends, mark and drill a recess of 5 mm in depth for each dowel. See the above image for measurements of where to drill.

4. Glue the dowels into the recesses, thereby joining the two ends together.

5. Cut the piece of fencing mesh to size with the metal snips. Bend the wire around a block of wood to create the correct profile for the basket. Position the wire ‘basket’ over the dowels, then bend the wire firmly into place using pliers. If you are worried about the wire basket coming off, you can secure it to the dowels with some small fencing staples.

6. Measure and mark the centre point of each end, near the top where the handle is to be attached. Drill a hole in each end and secure the handle using glue and a wood screw.

Making a Handle

If you can’t find a suitable branch to use as a handle for your basket then you can make one like we did. Measure the length of the basket (it should be 410 mm, which is the length of the dowels minus the depth they are recessed). Tie a pencil to a nail, making sure the length of the string is exactly half the length of the basket (205 mm in this case).

Fix the nail into the centre of a 30 mm piece of wood and, using the pencil, draw a semicircle. Shorten the string by about 25 mm and draw a parallel semi-circle. Cut out the handle with a jigsaw and file down the edges. Keep the ends of the handle where it will attach to the basket square. Sand the handle until it is rounded and comfortable to hold.